Lenzley said it was one of the most miserable nights of her life "and I'm from Michigan."

Hardy
Midwesterners well accustomed to frigid weather found the blast of
Arctic cold to be far beyond anything in recent memory, breaking records
and testing their legendary ability to cope with winter's extremes.
Tuesday dawned even colder as the "polar vortex'' of frigid Arctic air
advances, bringing more record-breaking cold to the East and Northeast.

At
least 12 deaths have been blamed on the cold front and series of
snowstorms since late last week, including six in Michigan, the Weather
Channel reported.

New Yorkers who saw temperatures above 50
degrees Monday morning saw them drop to single digits Monday night. At
least 45 record low temperatures were set Tuesday morning in the South,
East, and Midwest, according to the Weather Channel. Among them: Atlanta
(6 degrees), Huntsville, Ala. (4 degrees), Knoxville, Tenn. (6),
Charlotte (6), New York City (4), Baltimore (3), Philadelphia (4),
Cleveland (-11), and Detroit (-14).

"The big story today is it's
still bitter cold across the Great Lakes and the East," AccuWeather
senior meteorologist Tom Kines said Tuesday. "But we are already seeing
moderate air pushing into North Dakota. We just gotta get through
today."

That was no small order. Brutal subzero temperatures
forced school closings, kept people home from work, stymied air travel
and posed real danger to anyone lingering outdoors.

Air
travel, all but impossible Monday, saw a similar trend early Tuesday.
More than 2,500 schedule commercial flights were canceled by 10:30 a.m.
ET Tuesday, with 1,500-plus more delayed, Flightstats.com reported. On
Monday, more than 5,000 flights were canceled and more than 10,000 more
were seriously delayed.

On Monday, Chicago saw a record low of
minus 16, and Quincy, Ill., tied a record at minus 9. Wind chills across
the Midwest were 40 below and colder.

Many people, like David Mousseau, an operations manager for an
energy company, abandoned efforts to get to work and decided to stay
home, saying it was the coldest he has experienced in three decades as a
Chicagoan.

"I went out and started the car but my feet
were frozen within five minutes," Mousseau said. "And I had on all the
stuff I would for skiing. So I decided to pass."

Temperature in
Chicago rose to just minus 10 in midafternoon Monday. Much of the city
was shut down, including the SkyDeck Chicago at the Willis (formerly
Sears) Tower. Winds made for a wind-chill effect temperature in the
minus-40s.

"This
is some of the most extreme weather we have seen in the city of Chicago
in decades," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. His office and other city
agencies urged people to stay inside. The city extended hours on its
warming centers where people can shelter from the cold.

More than
500 Amtrak passengers spent the night on three stopped trains headed for
Chicago because of blowing and drifting snow in north-central Illinois.
Spokesman Marc Magliari said all the passengers, traveling from Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Quincy, Ill., had been evacuated from the
trains and would reach their destinations either by train or bus later
Tuesday.

Schools were closed in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and
the entire state of Minnesota as people were warned to keep children out
of the cold. Cities urged taking pets indoors.

IIllinois Gov. Pat Quinn declared a state disaster and activated the National Guard.

In Indiana, the General Assembly postponed the opening of its 2014 session, and the state appellate courts shut down.

Indiana
Gov. Mike Pence ordered the National Guard to help stranded motorists,
moving people to shelters and transporting emergency medical services.
to those in need. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard upgraded the city's
travel emergency level, making it illegal to drive except in emergencies
or seeking shelter. The last time the city issued such a travel warning
was in 1978.

Steve Cochrane, director of regional economics at
Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pa., said the cold's economic impact
will be small for the nation's economy, though it will be felt locally.

"You spend less when you are hunkered down and more later on,'' Cochrane said.